PMA 4550 - [Film/History/Ideology: The Polish Case]

(HA-AS)

4 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: some film analysis or European history course work. Next offered 2014-2015.

D. Fredericksen.

What happens when a state attempts to erase a nation’s history and impose an alien ideology upon it? This was the situation faced by Poland and other eastern European countries in the aftermath of World War II and the progressive imposition of communist rule. This course will study Polish film from 1945 to 1989 within this context, to include the period of socialist realism, the “Polish school,” the cinema of moral concern, Solidarity cinema, and beyond. Readings from Polish history (Norman Davies), film history, state documents (The Black Book of Polish Censorship), cultural analysis (Milosz’ The Captive Mind), and others. (HTC)